glbmp

glbmp is an extremely portable, simple, robust, and lightweight replacement for the auxDIBImageLoad() and related device-independent bitmap (.bmp) image loader functions of glaux, but it goes far beyond just that. At the basic level, it’s a flexible bitmap loader and decoder that can be used anywhere you need to get the color data of a .bmp file. It has a freshmeat.net project too: glbmp.

• Why create glbmp when it’s just duplicating existing functionality?
  • glaux.h and glaux.lib (or libglaux.a) no longer exist on most systems: a new solution is needed.
• So, then why not use an existing image loading library?
  • There aren’t very many full-featured and portable image libraries that are lightweight enough to be useful (glbmp is two files: one .c and one .h that can be easily dropped into any existing project).
• But why bitmaps?
  • Bitmaps are fairly common in simple games (that is, games where a drop-in image loader is called for) and easy to work with.

• Handles uncompressed monochrome, 16 color, 256 color, and 24-bit bitmap files of any size
• Flexible output formats: dword or byte aligned scan-lines, last line first (upside-down) or linear
• Default behavior is compatible with OpenGL’s texture functions
• Extremely lightweight, yet powerful and portable
• Written in 100% ANSI C, tested (and working!) on Win32, Linux, and MacOS X
• zlib/libpng licensed, so it can be used for pretty much anything on earth

View the source:

• glbmp.c
• glbmp.h

Or, get a distribution:

The above two distributions are identical in contents; the only difference is archive format. They come with source and header files (no project or make files), a README and a tutorial.

Note that on 2007 Feb. 21, I uploaded a slightly modified version of both archives (the only change is my email address in the comments, so there’s no reason to upgrade from an older version). If you downloaded either archive prior that date, your file sizes and hashes will be different.

Not available.

v1.1 of glbmp sees a fix for big-endian architectures, so glbmp will work on Macs!

• tutorial
• ChangeLog

• Bug tracker
• Email the author: Charles Lindsay